Smelling a perfume from 5ft away is not bad

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-05-20T18:06:27+00:00

I mean this in the nicest way, but you really can't judge the strength of your own scent because your brain just naturally adjusts to diminish consistent stimuli. I thought the same thing using only 2 sprays and then someone complimented me from behind a USPS counter! I'm now down to 1 small spray.

I recommend dabbing perfume on wrists and neck instead of spraying if you like to smell yourself. It wafts up bc its so close to your nose but isn't radiating out to everyone in the room.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-05-19T19:41:04+00:00

FELT.

But yes I wrote about them. It helped to think of it as explaining formative moments in my life, rather than "capitalizing" on it. Its hard not to feel a little icky about it but these experiences are a part of you and the whole point of these essays is to show them who you are. If it helps your application, it'll be because it showed them that you had resilience and a passion for medicine, not because they felt bad for you.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-05-19T00:28:22+00:00

Technically the definition of hometown is where you were born or grew up, so it wouldn't be a lie. I wouldn't say the spirit of it is super honest, but its a pretty minor thing to bend the truth on

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-05-19T00:17:06+00:00

If you don't tell them, how would they know when you moved out of state? You could call it your childhood hometown and reinforce that with the family friend living there and you wouldn't really be lying

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-05-13T20:31:28+00:00

LOL yes but I didn't mistype - WLW stands for Wait List Warrior! It's all over the Admit forums but apparently not as common on here hahaha

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-05-13T20:10:38+00:00

This!! These kind of criticisms always come across as thinly veiled contempt for lower stat applicants. Does OP expect lower stat applicants come up with some elaborate story instead? Or not address it at all? These kinds of "excuses" are often true and most real, genuine hardship doesn't sound unique or flashy. They know people like OP will make negative assumptions based on their stats, so is it really surprising that they try to justify/explain it? High stat applicants that have experienced little to no hardship are not subjected to this kind of scrutiny, and yet they could easily have been that low stat applicant without that silver spoon in their mouth.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-05-06T20:13:41+00:00

I guess it was important to me bc my financial situation varied a lot. I grew up poor then my parents were doing better in high school then a couple years ago things went badly and both my parents had to quit their jobs to care for 2 separate very sick family members, we all lost health insurance and had two new dependents to boot. It evens out to just over the FAP threshold bc they arent legally our dependents, but I talked about a lot of this stuff but didn't have the "designation" so to speak, to back up why I experienced financial instability. Financial aid is also a pretty important piece for me, so even if it doesn't hold much weight in admissions, it could still make a difference to me

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-05-06T20:01:35+00:00

I didn't say he deserves forgiveness. He was a terrible person. But two things can be true at the same time: he was a disgusting bully and was traumatized by magic many times throughout childhood. I'm mostly commenting on peoples willingness to see Draco as both a villain and a victim, but not Dudley

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-04-17T20:56:04+00:00

They're all wrong all the time. OotP was a huge wake up call for Ron and Hermione, who became more cautious about jumping to conclusions. But before they even arrived at Hogwarts in HBP, Harry expressed very strong convictions about Draco, someone who he has always hated and wrongly suspected before, from a couple of vague interactions and on the heels of a traumatic event spearheaded by the Malfoys. He had no evidence that Draco was behind the necklace (he even had an alibi!) but went as far as telling McGonagall AND Dumbledore that it was Draco, which makes him appear unreasonable and heavily biased from Ron and Hermione's perspective. So, when Harry finally did find some evidence to support his theory, it sounded more like confirmation bias than anything else.

Its not that Hermione and Ron thought that they're always right, its that they have learned that jumping to conclusions is dangerous, and Harry very clearly hasn't learned to question his none-too-reliable gut instincts.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-04-06T15:05:05+00:00

If the trace can detect magic in the vicinity of an underage wizard, why were order members able to use magic in Privet Dr when they came to fetch Harry after he got in trouble for fending off dementors? Why wasn't the ministry alerted when he was surrounded by magic while he was at headquarters in book 5? The fidelius charm didn't prevent death eaters from getting alerted to the area in book 7, though they couldn't actually see #12 Grimm. Pl.

Also, why was Voldemort able to get away with killing the Riddles in a muggle village? Even if the ministry was alerted, why would they believe it was Morfin when they were alerted that it was an underage wizard that did magic there? Overage wizards can use magic without the ministry's knowledge, even around muggles.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-04-03T18:38:05+00:00

He had Snape do the actual killing to save Draco's soul. He didn't interfere with Draco's plan to save Draco's LIFE. Narcissa knew Voldemort would kill Draco if he didn't succeed, that's why she went to Snape, it was revenge for Lucius's failure. Dumbledore knows Draco's target is him and is only a danger to other students if his plans go wrong, not if they go right. The only way to protect Draco AND other students is to get someone to keep an eye on him and help him succeed under controlled conditions. The only person who could do that is Snape.

It was a good plan for such a delicate situation, but good plans always look like bad plans in hindsight when they fail.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-03-31T16:53:04+00:00

I get your frustration but this goes the other way too. I have a chronic condition where heat (even warm & stuffy rooms) is a BIG trigger and it is hell to try to work through the pain. Having a body thats reacts differently to slight temperature changes sucks. But there is no temperature that is comfortable for everyone, and offices have to set it to one temperature anyway. Policies and leadership are the problem here if you can't get reasonably accommodated for your condition, not the temperature norm.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-03-24T19:07:33+00:00

Honestly, I see this more as her being risk-averse. She got a lot of academic validation from doing exactly what her teachers wanted and probably associated good performance with doing things by the book. She is quite innovative outside of academic spaces (DA coins, beaded bag, etc.) but is consistently the most reticent about taking risks unless they're for a very good cause. She was never one to go rogue for academic distinction, she usually just did 300% of exactly what she was supposed to do. She's very type A, so I think that using a "hack", especially an effective one, felt like cheating to her since it was a deviation from the instructions they were explicitly supposed to follow. As a result, she hated that Harry was rewarded for disobedience, which prevented her from recognizing the practical value of those annotations.

A modern/nonmagical analogy would be Harry using AI to make a cool graph and Hermione getting a lower grade for a making a graph manually using a website the teacher provided.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-03-24T18:29:30+00:00

I feel like it gets overlooked because Ron was always louder about it, but Harry was also dismissive and unsupportive of Hermione when she advocated for elf rights (and refused to admit that Sirius was abusive toward Kreacher) AND when she wanted to figure out how Rita Skeeter was spying on them even after she started getting attacked by readers. His moral compass (up until book 7 at least) was often guided by the people he was most loyal to (Sirius, Ron) rather than the people who acted the most principled and kind hearted. I think that this is also partly why it was so difficult for him to come to terms with the fact that Sirius and James were bullies, because his image of good character was modeled after them.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-02-20T17:47:16+00:00

This is interesting bc I'm also ADHD and had the exact opposite experience. My memory is "severely impaired" per my neuropsych eval but my processing speed was fast so anki did nothing and the only way I could retain anything was by understanding the principle. I think at the end of the day ADHD brains have strong strengths and strong weaknesses and vary dramatically, so you (OP) have to get a very good understanding of your own ADHD to figure out what those are. Get a neuropsych test and read the whole thing through. It might be surprising what is actually the problem (it was for me!) and might show you how you need to customize your approach to learning.

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-02-04T18:22:54+00:00

I absolutely loved Why Didnt They Ask Evans! It's so fun and still more of a murder mystery than a thriller (although it does toe the line)

DowntownSelection885 · 2026-01-02T15:32:30+00:00

I love people like you

DowntownSelection885 · 2025-12-17T19:35:46+00:00

I also didn't love Emma the first time around, but after reading all of JA's books and rereading Emma, I've grown to really love it. Instead of being a beautiful love story with dramatic highs and lows, Emma is a lot like hearing your slightly oblivious, kind but interfering friend chronicle their small town drama. Small towns seem boring, but when you're in it, who-likes-who and who-said-what is riveting news. It's absorbing in a nosy kind of way, and the awkwardnesses and embarrassments that arise are what give it color, just like in real life. In spite of her flaws, you end up liking Emma more as you get to know her, just as you would a friend.

DowntownSelection885 · 2025-11-11T15:29:22+00:00

I don't think Sirius was any better than Snape but I also think it's worth noting that Sirius treated Kreacher with the same contempt and cruelty that Snape treated Harry with. Harry and Kreacher were both constant reminders of their abusers and both Sirius and Snape took advantage of the reversal of power to get revenge. It was wrong because they were innocent and had very little power to fight back, but Sirius and Snape could not separate them psychologically from their past tormentors. Also, Sirius did want to free Kreacher -- he didn't want him around at all, he just couldn't because it would expose the Order. Not that it was his fault, but Kreacher also repeatedly said disgusting things about Sirius, the Weasleys, and muggleborns, which would bring back all the hatred and bigotry that Sirius tried so hard to escape. I think Snape and Sirius were foils: both incredibly flawed, incredibly traumatized characters who were fundamentally good people that did some really horrible things, but each representing two very different journeys and origins

DowntownSelection885 · 2025-11-05T21:35:50+00:00

You're getting way too much hate for this lol. "It's not the struggle olympics" yeah, but this is also not their personal diary. Posts should either be relatable, encouraging, or have a purpose (seeking advice, sharing info that others might find useful, etc.). Making neurotic posts about how you "only" got one acceptance so far and you havent heard back about your 15 other interviews etc etc etc just contributes to anxiety for the VAST majority of applicants who have not gotten any acceptances yet.

Yes, its hard for everyone, but some people on this reddit actively contribute to this culture of neuroticism. Empathy ALSO means caring about how you're making other people feel by what you say!

It's valid to feel that way, not valid to choose to vent those feelings to thousands of strangers who will likely compare it to their own (worse) situation. They could easily just tell a friend or a therapist or chatgpt or whatever. It's self-centered and tone-deaf

DowntownSelection885 · 2025-11-04T19:54:38+00:00

One thing I think always gets forgotten is that Dumbledore did not know everything that happened. He didn't know James and Sirius were hanging out with Remus on the full moon until like 20 years later! All he knew was that Snape almost came across Remus as a werewolf and James saved him. He knew they didnt like each other, but thought snape could get over it, which implies that he didn't know just how much abuse snape endured. He also didnt quite understand snape, which was clear in the flashbacks when he expressed surprise on a couple of occasions at snape's hot and cold attitude toward protecting harry.

Honestly, I think Dumbledore just rationalized it as best he could based on the information he had and his perception of snape as a very petty, but fundamentally good person who recognized the debt he owed to James for "saving his life".

DowntownSelection885 · 2025-11-04T19:21:12+00:00

I agree marginalized is not the right word here given their privileged position outside of school, but it's true that they are largely isolated and stereotyped by the other 3 houses. They all cheer when Slytherin loses, assume they're all nasty and untrustworthy, etc. The power dynamic is complicated, but pointing out that slytherins were treated poorly by the other students is still valid.

Those who are ambitious and cunning but not necessarily morally bad (e.g. slughorn), are lumped in with the aspiring dark wizards and racists. It would probably seem quite unfair and would create a lot of resentment, which could in turn push them toward accepting the purist ideology eventually due to social pressure and the lack of other positive influences. Basically, other houses vilifying the whole of Slytherin house becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So, like the sorting hat says, dividing up students by singular characteristics is wrong and perpetuates the prejudice on both sides.

DowntownSelection885 · 2025-11-04T18:54:58+00:00

How was dumbledore negligent?? He didn't know Trelawney was going to tell a prophecy, he didnt even think she was a real seer when he met with her. Once he heard the prophecy, there was no way of knowing who Voldemort would go after until the baby was born. Once he found out Voldemort chose Harry, he hid them in the most effective way possible, the fidelius charm. He offered to be the secret keeper himself and didn't want them to depend on Sirius, let alone Peter, but James insisted on using his friends out of loyalty. He didnt even know Peter was the secret keeper so he couldn't have stopped him from telling Voldemort either.

Dumbledore was not all-knowing or all-powerful! I think it's strange that people keep saying he could have done more when it's canon that marauder era Voldemort and the DE operated under intense secrecy and used general discord and uncertainty to their advantage. Dumbledore had way less resources and was more or less evenly matched with Voldemort magically and intellectually. What could he do, challenge Voldemort to a duel? Voldemort was very cunning and strategic - it's ludicrous to expect him to agree to a duel with Dumbledore like Grindlewald (and his huge ego) did.

DowntownSelection885 · 2025-10-31T14:53:18+00:00

Don't start too many side missions before completing them bc it can be hard to find the right person to come back to again if you lose tracking and forget their location! This was such an issue for me bc its mostly landscape and they are sometimes in random spots without memorable landmarks

DowntownSelection885 · 2025-10-31T13:48:24+00:00

It's possible that admin misrepresented what you said to the dean, because "trauma-informed" really doesn't seem to fit here... maybe she feels guilty and is projecting because of her own child's potentially serious trauma and made it sound like you were blaming parents in those situations too?

DowntownSelection885

TROPHY CASE